Biography of Camillo Benso di Cavour

Passion and reason

10 August 1810
6 June 1861
Camillo Paolo Filippo Giulio Benso, count of Cavour, noble of the marquises of Cellarengo and Isolabella was born on 10 August 1810 in Turin, then the capital of a Department of the Napoleonic Empire. Second son of Marquis Michele Genevan and Adele of Sellon, Cavour's young army officer. Leave in 1831 the military life and travels in Europe for four years, studying especially the effects of the industrial revolution in Britain, France and Switzerland and taking economic, social and political principles of British liberal system. He returned to Piedmont in 1835 is primarily concerned with agriculture and is interested in economies and the spread of schools and kindergartens. Due to its commercial and banking activity Cavour becomes one of the richest men in the Piedmont. The Foundation in December 1847 of the newspaper "Il Risorgimento" marked the beginning of his political engagement: only a major restructuring of the political institutions and the creation of a territorially wide and Kingdom in Italy would have, according to Cavour, made possible the development and socio-economic growth promoted by him with the efforts of previous years.
In 1850, having brought out in defense of laws Sainsbury (promoted to decrease the privileges recognized to the clergy, included the abolition of ecclesiastical court, the right of asylum in churches and convents, the reduction in the number of religious holidays and the ban for ecclesiastical corporations to buy property, receive an inheritance or donations without receiving the consent of the Government) Cavour is called to be part of the Cabinet D'azeglio as Minister of agriculture , trade and Navy. Subsequently he was appointed Minister of finance. With this position soon takes a leading position, eventually becoming President of the Council on 4 November 1852. Before being appointed Cavour had already in mind a clear and defined policy agenda and was determined to make it happen, while not ignoring the difficulties he would have to overcome.
The main obstacle the stemmed from the fact not to enjoy the sympathy of extreme sectors of Parliament, as the left does not believe his intentions of reform, while the right he was even a dangerous gamble, a revolutionary secular traditions wrecker. In domestic policy aims first of Piedmont a constitutional State, inspired by a measured and progressive liberalism, in which the freedom to constitute the premise of each initiative. Convinced that economic progress are extremely important to the political life of a country, Cavour is dedicated to a radical renewal of the economy.
Agriculture is enhanced and modernized thanks to an increasingly widespread use of chemical fertilizers and a vast work of canalization meant to eliminate the frequent famines due to lack of water for irrigation, and to facilitate the transport of agricultural products; the industry is renewed and strengthened through the creation of new factories and the strengthening of existing ones especially in the textile sector; He founded a business based on free trade, domestic and foreign: facilitated by a series of treaties with France, Belgium and Holland (1851-1858) undergoes a sharp increase. Cavour also will renew the tax system, based not only on indirect taxation but also on those intended, affecting especially the big income; It also provides for the strengthening of the banks with the establishment of a "National Bank" for the granting of loans at very high interest.
The progressive consolidation of political, economic and military, foreign policy, toward a daring pushes Cavour capable of lifting the Piedmont from isolation. At first he does not believe should break away from the old map of Carlo Alberto tending to Austria from Lombardy-Venetia's departure and the subsequent unification of Northern Italy under the Savoy monarchy, however afterwards the possibility to enlarge in national direction its policy, by adhering to the unitary programme of Giuseppe Mazzini, albeit on royalist bases and Liberals. The first step was to impose the European and Italian for the attention this issue aim with all his wits Cavour: the 21 July 1858 meets Napoleon III at Plombières, where are the foundations of an Alliance against Austria. The official Treaty stipulated that: the France would intervene at the side of Piedmont, only if Austria had assaulted; If you win you would have formed in Italy four been brought together into a single Confederation under the honorary Presidency of the Pope but dominated in Northern Italy from Piemonte: a substantially with the annexation to the Kingdom of Sardinia of Lombardy-Venetia, the duchies of Parma and Modena and the remainder from Emilia; one in Central Italy, including Tuscany, the marches and Umbria; a third in southern Italy corresponds to the Kingdom of the two Sicilies; a fourth, finally, formed by the Papal States with Rome and its surroundings.
On the other hand the aid lent by France the Piedmont would have ceded to Napoleon III the Duchy of Savoy and the County of Nice. It is clear that such a treaty did not take absolutely Unitarian aspirations account of most of the Italian population, it was aimed only at eliminating the Austrian domination of the peninsula. The second war of independence allows the acquisition of Lombardy, but the expansion of the national Democrats movement awakens in the apprehension of the creation of a French unit too great: the Italian Armistice of Villafranca causes the temporary freezing of risings and the decision by Cavour to leave the Government. Returned to the Prime Minister Cavour still manages to use it to your advantage the momentary coldness in relations with France, when opposite the Mille expedition and the liberation of southern Italy could order the simultaneous invasion of the Papal States. The diplomatic skill of Cavour in maintaining the approval of the European powers and the fidelity of Giuseppe Garibaldi to the motto "Italy and Vittorio Emanuele" lead to the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, the day 17 March 1861. Camillo Benso conte di Cavour dies in his hometown on 6 June 1861.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.